The present invention relates to motion controlling struts or vibration arrestors and, more particularly, to a strut which may be connected between relatively moveable elements, such as steampipes in a power producing station and adjacent supporting structure, to limit motion between the steampipe and the structure or any pair of relatively moveable mechanical elements.
The present invention is an improvement over that which is disclosed in a patent application of William S. Wright and Elmer C. Yang, Ser. No. 695,223, filed June 11, 1976 and many of the elements of the present strut are similar to elements disclosed in that application. For this reason, the Wright, Yang disclosure is incorporated herein by reference.
The primary difficulty in applying the Wright and Yang apparatus to extremely large shock arrestors, such as those capable of handling several hundred thousand pounds when locked, is the necessity to increase the load bearing surfaces of the rotating tubular inertia member as well as the thickness of this member itself in order to support extremely large loads. Once this inertia member has been substantially increased in size, its inertia is, of course, also substantially increased, and thus the springs required to accelerate this member rotationally in response to axial accelerations must become much larger also. This increased size increases the overall cost and size of the motion arresting strut.